Anyone had bad experiences with guests at their property
Thats an excellent idea putting chemical in toilet rolls to help fosse,. The toilet rolls in Portugal are very thin maybe thats the reason they are made this way so they break down easier. Facinating I have always called the portuguese for producing thin rolls but now I understand. We had so many problems with our fosse we applied to the council to be put on the mains sewer as we were not very far from the connection, but we have to have a pump in the fosse to take it to the main sewer as the house is lower than the road. Thank god we no longer have to have the damn thing pumped out, just hope the pump dont break down now. Interesting subject fosses it generates a lot of posts, didnt realise so many folks have problems with them. Regards Jayjan
We have only had one group of guests that were a nightmare from day one that was last February.
Grandmother & Grandfather booked the villa for 2 weeks in Feb for a special wedding anniversary. The whole family were spending the first week with them and then friends the second week.
We left the usual welcome pack plus a bottle of good quality cava for the celebration.
That evening we get a call to say that there's no hot water! We have two emersions, one upstairs and one downstairs and we've never had guests complain about lack of hot water. In the phone conversation I find out that they've given 2 of the 3 children (all under 5 and cousins) separate baths so there was no hot water for the third child or for showers! I told them that it was normal whether in the UK or Spain that if you drain the tank it takes about 45 mins to heat up again!
Next day we get a call to say that there was no electricity as it kept tripping. So we rushed down and being Sunday we knew that we could not get an electrician to fix the problem on the day. Hasten to add while we were running around testing everything in the villa the family just stayed in the lounge without a care.
Anyway through sheer good luck we found that the problem was with one of the sockets in the bedroom...my husband had a look at it and found that painted area around the socket had scratch marks..as though someone had been trying to lift off the cover with something sharp (we assumed a knife)....when he opened the socket he found the screws holding the wires were unscrewed! Obviously the socket had been tampered with.
We think that they were definitely seasoned complainers who tampered with the socket, because if they had no lighting and heating then we would have had to have given them some sort of refund. Luckily for us we found the problem, but it still makes me shudder to think what would have happened if we hadn't!
Then they had the audacity to write in our guest book that we shouldn't have bothered with the welcome pack as 'everyones taste were different'...that we should have provided a cheese grater, eggs cups, small bowls for peanuts, more tea towels as Grandmother didn't think she should come on holiday and do washing (we have a w/machine at the villa)! The list of pathetic complaints filled an A4 size sheet! And lastly...drum roll.......they complained about the terrible weather they had the first week and not being able to dry wet towels!!
Grandmother & Grandfather booked the villa for 2 weeks in Feb for a special wedding anniversary. The whole family were spending the first week with them and then friends the second week.
We left the usual welcome pack plus a bottle of good quality cava for the celebration.
That evening we get a call to say that there's no hot water! We have two emersions, one upstairs and one downstairs and we've never had guests complain about lack of hot water. In the phone conversation I find out that they've given 2 of the 3 children (all under 5 and cousins) separate baths so there was no hot water for the third child or for showers! I told them that it was normal whether in the UK or Spain that if you drain the tank it takes about 45 mins to heat up again!
Next day we get a call to say that there was no electricity as it kept tripping. So we rushed down and being Sunday we knew that we could not get an electrician to fix the problem on the day. Hasten to add while we were running around testing everything in the villa the family just stayed in the lounge without a care.
Anyway through sheer good luck we found that the problem was with one of the sockets in the bedroom...my husband had a look at it and found that painted area around the socket had scratch marks..as though someone had been trying to lift off the cover with something sharp (we assumed a knife)....when he opened the socket he found the screws holding the wires were unscrewed! Obviously the socket had been tampered with.
We think that they were definitely seasoned complainers who tampered with the socket, because if they had no lighting and heating then we would have had to have given them some sort of refund. Luckily for us we found the problem, but it still makes me shudder to think what would have happened if we hadn't!
Then they had the audacity to write in our guest book that we shouldn't have bothered with the welcome pack as 'everyones taste were different'...that we should have provided a cheese grater, eggs cups, small bowls for peanuts, more tea towels as Grandmother didn't think she should come on holiday and do washing (we have a w/machine at the villa)! The list of pathetic complaints filled an A4 size sheet! And lastly...drum roll.......they complained about the terrible weather they had the first week and not being able to dry wet towels!!
Crickey Crystal..it does make me shudder ... I shouldn't be surprised with what we find ...but this one takes some beating,professional complainers!
It looks a great place...my mother in law lived in Medina Del Zocco in Calahonda before moving to Arizona...so know the area reasonably well
Best
Tansy
It looks a great place...my mother in law lived in Medina Del Zocco in Calahonda before moving to Arizona...so know the area reasonably well
Best
Tansy
it's all a learning curve!
-
Alan Knighting
- Posts: 4120
- Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2004 7:26 am
- Location: Monflanquin, Lot-et-Garonne, France
Fluffy is eating humble pie again. In the past I have extolled the virtues of my guests and how wonderful they all are.
I have a party of six mature guests at the moment. They are old friends from the UK and on their fifth holiday with us. The “party leader� has some 30+ (that’s age not numbers) children who are holidaying in the Dordogne and he asked “would it be OK if they visited for the day?�. Of course, I said “Yes�. What a mistake to make!
They littered my parking with their cars by getting out of them wherever they happened to stop. They caused absolute mayhem around my pool, so much so that my other guests left in disgust. They treated all the facilities with total disrespect and left the pool looking as though a bomb has struck. What makes matter worse; they were not even paying for it.
Thank God they have gone but I now have to explain to their parents that I will not tolerate that sort of behaviour (it may be normal in the UK but it certainly isn’t even verging on the acceptable here); I have to grovel to my other guests and I have to repair all the damage done.
What a silly boy I am I having said “Yes� in the first place!
Alan
I have a party of six mature guests at the moment. They are old friends from the UK and on their fifth holiday with us. The “party leader� has some 30+ (that’s age not numbers) children who are holidaying in the Dordogne and he asked “would it be OK if they visited for the day?�. Of course, I said “Yes�. What a mistake to make!
They littered my parking with their cars by getting out of them wherever they happened to stop. They caused absolute mayhem around my pool, so much so that my other guests left in disgust. They treated all the facilities with total disrespect and left the pool looking as though a bomb has struck. What makes matter worse; they were not even paying for it.
Thank God they have gone but I now have to explain to their parents that I will not tolerate that sort of behaviour (it may be normal in the UK but it certainly isn’t even verging on the acceptable here); I have to grovel to my other guests and I have to repair all the damage done.
What a silly boy I am I having said “Yes� in the first place!
Alan
Alan, sounds like you're being very harsh on yourself. Given the circumstances you describe (old friends, 5th time visitor...) I doubt that anyone else on this forum would have made any different decision.Alan Knighting wrote:
What a silly boy I am I having said “Yes� in the first place!
Alan
Really sorry to hear the outcome, but if it were me, I'd have felt much worse denying them the visit of their "chidren".
Alan..what have I been saying all along - 30+ age group..there is your problem!! Every single time I have had a problem it has been that age group!
Give me a group of 17 year old like Linda had any day!
Boy oh Boy I would be hopping up & down...
But I'm sure your other guests will fully appreciate this is not the norm for Fluffy's guests!!
Give me a group of 17 year old like Linda had any day!
Boy oh Boy I would be hopping up & down...
But I'm sure your other guests will fully appreciate this is not the norm for Fluffy's guests!!
it's all a learning curve!
-
Alan Knighting
- Posts: 4120
- Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2004 7:26 am
- Location: Monflanquin, Lot-et-Garonne, France
Thanks for the support. It's a feel good factor being able to talk to people I have never met.
I've just finished apologising to the other guests. Their reaction was "What problem?". It must be me over-reacting again so, what's new?
Anyway, it's all sorted and I'm off to do a prawn stir-fry for "her indoors who must be obeyed".
I've just finished apologising to the other guests. Their reaction was "What problem?". It must be me over-reacting again so, what's new?
Anyway, it's all sorted and I'm off to do a prawn stir-fry for "her indoors who must be obeyed".
Alan,
We had a similar experience last week. Agreeing to a visit from our tenants' friends, which I naively imagined would consist of tea & gentle conversation in the garden, I found the pool, garden and apartment taken over by children whose parents abandoned all supervision. Our day was ruined: noise, worry about breakages, bbq & late night partying - we had to ask the extra people to leave, in the end. (They did, immediately.)
2 resolutions: i) any extra visitors are accepted subject to their not using the pool or dining facilities and subject to their not staying more than a few hours.
ii) Groups are not accepted in high season. This was a vivid example of what happens when more than 1 family uses the property. In the absence of other people our tenants had kept an eye on their children, who behaved reasonably. Once the other couple arrived the parents simply left the children to their own devices, with bedlam as the result.
Now I know why professional holiday villa companies forbid the presence on their properties of anyone not named in the booking forms.
We had a similar experience last week. Agreeing to a visit from our tenants' friends, which I naively imagined would consist of tea & gentle conversation in the garden, I found the pool, garden and apartment taken over by children whose parents abandoned all supervision. Our day was ruined: noise, worry about breakages, bbq & late night partying - we had to ask the extra people to leave, in the end. (They did, immediately.)
2 resolutions: i) any extra visitors are accepted subject to their not using the pool or dining facilities and subject to their not staying more than a few hours.
ii) Groups are not accepted in high season. This was a vivid example of what happens when more than 1 family uses the property. In the absence of other people our tenants had kept an eye on their children, who behaved reasonably. Once the other couple arrived the parents simply left the children to their own devices, with bedlam as the result.
Now I know why professional holiday villa companies forbid the presence on their properties of anyone not named in the booking forms.
Best,
Alexia.
Alexia.
-
Alan Knighting
- Posts: 4120
- Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2004 7:26 am
- Location: Monflanquin, Lot-et-Garonne, France
That is me to a "T". I was having some counselling sessions at one time, (cognative therapy which was very interesting and effective) and the therapist told me I "catastrophise"... and you know, she's rightIt must be me over-reacting again so, what's new?
Stick a couple of sheets of "Bounce" in that dryer too Alan and you'll be all sorted out.